I went to see The Producers the other night at Roosevelt Park in Edison. It was my first experience going to see one of those Plays in the Park and wow! What a deal! Tickets cost $5 (bring your own chair and bug spray) but it was worth far more than that! The actors were fab, the costumes were beautiful, the sets were amazing, the lighting was fantastic (that’s a big deal to me) and I got to see my good friend, Dan Cook, performing on stage!

If you didn’t get a chance to go yet, there’s a show tonight and one final performance on Saturday night. For information, click here.

Dan plays Franz and does an excellent job! Dan, I made a little slide show for you. Turn up the sound and click here. Enjoy! Break a leg tonight!



By the way, nice knees.

This is Wally’s senior year, and his last year performing with his younger sister, Sammie, in the high school productions. I’ve known Wally and Sammie for many years, watched them grow up, so seeing both of them performing with such skill, grace and maturity was a bit shocking, and quite endearing too. The whole cast did an excellent job!

As a gift to Sammie and Wally, here’s a little one minute slide show. The final photograph in the show, taken as the lights were dimming for the last time, is my absolute favorite.

Turn up the sound, click here, and enjoy the show!

In the Living Dramatization of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” an event at my church last night, worshippers entered the Sanctuary just after Jesus spoke the words from Matthew 26:21 “…Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” This is the point at which Leonardo created his famous painting, and the point at which the dramatization began.

I was in the back balcony, taking pictures only during the songs with no flash. I took the picture above with my Nikon D3 on ISO 6400, f/3.2 at shutter speed 1/160 seconds. Focal length: 52 mm. The lights in the Sanctuary were very low; the actors on the edges were in shadows creating quite a lighting difference between “Jesus” in the center, and “Simon” on the far right and “Nathaniel” on the far left.

You can see the picture above as a 13×19 print displayed in the First Presbyterian Church of Metuchen Narthex on Easter Sunday.

This one realistically depicts the lighting, and how far back I was, except the camera makes it seem as though the chandeliers were bright, and they were actually dimmed quite a lot.

I could switch lenses and get closer too.

“Jesus,” right, stared straight ahead for entire length of the program.

The dramatization explored the instant emotional tumult the disciples might have felt just after Jesus spoke of the impending betrayal. One by one, each man broke his pose and delivered a soliloquy revealing his inner thoughts, ultimately questioning who the guilty one was, and each one ending with “Is it I?” before resuming his pose in Leonardo’s painting.

When I said I only took pictures during the songs, I lied! Yikes! I did take this one during “Philip’s” monologue as a way to illustrate the point of the dramatization.

We either need a slightly shorter table, or a spotlight.

In this one, I did a little photoshop work to see if I could even out the lighting by blending two versions of the same picture. I bumped the exposure up for the end with “Simon,” and darkened the side with “Matthew,” but I didn’t bother disguising the line between the two exposures because I think it looks kind of interesting, like a rainbow. I’m sure you can see it.

Here’s what it really looked like, with no exposure tweaking in photoshop. If you go back to the image at the top of this post, I bet you can’t see that line. I photoshopped it out on the picture I wanted to make as a big print. Sneaky, huh? (But it’s possible you can see a subtle line in the print.)

Click here for a little slide show of the split second after the actors finally were allowed to break pose.

To all involved in the production: EXCELLENT job! From the costumes to the backdrop to the acting, posing and music, it was a very moving service. Thank you for all your hard work!

Yesterday, I promised an update on the dogwood’s progress. Will she blossom in time for Easter? I seriously doubt there’s any chance we’ll see even a hint of blossoming by Sunday but I’ll keep watch, just in case.

Above, that’s her mugshot for today. Not much different from Monday, except the sun has gone away. Coming tomorrow on my walk through Holy Week: my Lenten promise.

Before tonight, I’d never seen Melissa dance. But as her writing coach, I had read about it in her essays so rich with details. From her writings, I could easily imagine how comfortable she must be center stage. So when Melissa’s mom, Janine, offered me a ticket to see the Nutcracker, with Melissa as the snowqueen, I jumped away from my computer, grabbed my camera and off I went!

Turned out, I knew a lot of people in the cast, so I took pictures of pretty much everybody, thanks to Janine’s great seats!

Clara was played by Nicolette, another long-time friend of mine.

The light was beautiful when Melissa was dancing.
I took a lot of pictures!

Oh sure, the pictures look great on this blog, but you should see them in high resolution. WOW!

This is Melissa’s eleventh appearance in the Nutcracker, having started out as a taffy clown.

She’s now a senior, so graceful and beautiful.

But what makes the Nutcracker such a special ballet is the ensemble cast.

This production, by Ms. Doreen’s Fabulous Feet, has a cast of over 100 members.

So cute! (This is another young friend of mine!)

I love this shot.

All the dancers were spectacular!

THE END.

Taking a bow.

Ms. Kristina and Ms. Doreen

We love you, Melissa.
Congratulations!